What can health sciences do for persons with intellectual disability?
Medicine and health sciences in general should contribute to improving the quality of life of individuals with ID; to accomplish this, it is possible to design interventions that are closely related with the diagnosis.39 All available information about possible etiological factors must be taken into account (for example, precipitating episodes, family disposition, specific biological deficits, personality problems and specific developmental difficulties). Factors such as the severity of the ID, related disorders, the effects of prior treatments and the social environment should also be considered. Due to the complexity of ailments in persons with ID, their treatment must be planned from diverse perspectives (pharmacology, psychotherapy, behavioral intervention, etc.). In this regard, Ferrell and colleagues40 propose a combined therapeutic model based on community support, along with neuropsychiatric measures, as a type of effective intervention for psychiatric and behavioral problems i
